Scylla

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Scylla

Scylla (; , Skulla), also known as Scylle (; , Skulle), was one of the two monsters in Greek mythology

Greek mythology

Greek mythology is the body of myths and legends belonging to the Ancient Greece concerning their List of Greek mythological figures#Immortals and Greek hero cult, Cosmology#Metaphysical cosmology, and the origins and significance of their own cult and ritual practices....
(the other being Charybdis

Charybdis

In Greek mythology, Kharybdis or Charybdis was a sea monster, once a beautiful naiad and the daughter of Poseidon and Gaia . She takes form as a huge bladder of a creature whose face was all mouth and whose arms and legs were flippers and swallows huge amounts of water three times a day before belching them back out again, creating whi...
) that lived on either side of a narrow channel of water. The two sides of the strait were within an arrow's range of each other—so close that sailors attempting to avoid Charybdis would pass too close to Scylla and vice versa.

The phrase "between Scylla and Charybdis

Scylla and Charybdis

Scylla and Charybdis are two sea monsters of Greek mythology who were situated on opposite sides of the Strait of Messina between Sicily and Calabria, in Italy....
" has come to mean being in a state where one is between two dangers and moving away from one will cause you to be in danger from the other.

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Encyclopedia

Scylla (; , Skulla), also known as Scylle (; , Skulle), was one of the two monsters in Greek mythology

Greek mythology

Charybdis

Scylla and Charybdis

Strait of Messina

The Strait of Messina is the narrow section of water between the eastern tip of Sicily and the southern tip of Calabria in the south of Italy....
between Italy

Italy

Italy , officially the Italian Republic , is a country located on the Italian Peninsula in Southern Europe and on the two largest islands in the Mediterranean Sea, Sicily and Sardinia....
and Sicily

Sicily

Sicily is an Autonomous regions with special statute of Italy. Of all the regions of Italy, Sicily covers the largest land area at 25,708 km? and currently has just over five million inhabitants....
, but more recently this theory has been challenged, and the alternative location of Cape Skilla in northwest Greece has been suggested by Tim Severin

Tim Severin

Tim Severin is a British explorer and writer.He was born Timothy Severin in Assam, India, and currently lives in Timoleague, County Cork, Ireland, where he owns Argideen River Holiday Lodges....
.

Scylla was a grotesque sea monster, with six long necks equipped with grisly heads, each of which contained three rows of sharp teeth. Her body consisted of twelve canine legs and a cat's tail. She was one of the children of Phorcys

Phorcys

In Greek mythology, Phorcys, or Phorkys , was one of the names of the "Old Man [or One] of the Sea", the primeval Greek sea gods, who, according to Hesiod, was the son of Pontus and Gaia ....
and either Hecate

Hecate

Hecate Hekate , or Hekat was originally a goddess of the wilderness and childbirth, naturalized early in Mycenaean Greece or in Thrace, but originating among the Carians of Anatolia, the region where most theophoric names invoking Hecate, such as Hecataeus or Hecatomnus, progenitor of Mausollus, are attested, and where Hekate re...
, Crataeis

Crataeis

In Greek mythology, Crataeis was a nymph. According to Homer Odyssey, Circe tells Odysseus that Crataeis is the mother and father of Scylla, the sea monster. In Book XII, Homer writes:...
, Lamia

Lamia (mythology)

In Greek mythology, Lamia was a Queen of Libya who became a child-murdering daemon . In later writings she is pluralized into many lamiae ....
or Ceto

Ceto

In Greek mythology, Cetus , also called Ceto or Cetea, was a hideous sea monster, a daughter of Gaia and Pontus . The asteroid 65489 Ceto was named after her, and its satellite Ceto I Phorcys after her husband....
(where Scylla would also be known as one of the Phorcydes

Phorcydes

In Greek mythology the Phorcydes were the children of Phorcys and Ceto and include the Hesperides, the Graeae, the Gorgons, Scylla and other nymphs and monsters, mostly associated with the sea....
). Some sources, including Stesichorus

Stesichorus

Stesichorus was a Ancient Greece lyric poetry from Himera in Sicily, one of the nine lyric poets esteemed by the scholars of Hellenistic Alexandria as worthy of study....
cite her parents as Triton

Triton (mythology)

Triton is a mythological Greek mythology, the messenger of the deep. He is the son of Poseidon, god of the sea, and Amphitrite, goddess of the sea....
and Lamia

Lamia (mythology)

In Greek mythology, Lamia was a Queen of Libya who became a child-murdering daemon . In later writings she is pluralized into many lamiae ....
.

In classical art, she was depicted as a fish-tailed mermaid with four to six dog-heads ringing her waist.

In literature

Homer's Odyssey

In Homer

Homer

Homer is traditionally held to be the author of the ancient Greek language epic poems the Iliad and the Odyssey, as well as of the Homeric Hymns....
's Odyssey
Odyssey

The Odyssey is one of two major ancient Hellenic civilization epic poetrys attributed to Homer. It is, in part, a sequel to the Iliad, the other work traditionally ascribed to Homer....
XII, Odysseus

Odysseus

Odysseus or Ulysses , in Greek mythology , was a legendary Greeks king of Ithaca and the hero of Homer's Epic poetry, the Odyssey. Odysseus also plays a key role in Homer's Iliad and other works in the Epic Cycle....
is given advice by Circe

Circe

In Greek mythology, Circe , is a Queen goddess living on the island of Aeaea.Circe's father was Helios , the god of the sun and the owner of the land where Odysseus' men ate cattle, and her mother was Hecate the goddess of magic and the moon ; she was sister of two kings of Colchis, Aeetes and Perses, and of Pasipha?, mother of the Mino...
to sail closer to Scylla, for Charybdis could drown his whole ship: "Hug Scylla's crag—sail on past her—top speed! Better by far to lose six men and keep your ship than lose your entire crew" she warns and tells Odysseus to bid Crataeis prevent her from pouncing more than once. Odysseus then successfully sails his ship past Scylla and Charybdis, but Scylla manages to catch six of his men, devouring them alive:

"...they writhed
gasping as Scylla swung them up her cliff and there
at her cavern's mouth she bolted them down raw—
screaming out, flinging their arms toward me,
lost in that mortal struggle."

Ovid

According to Ovid

Ovid

Publius Ovidius Naso was a Roman Empire poet known as Ovid to the English language-speaking world, who wrote about love, seduction, and Roman mythology transformation....
, Scylla was once a beautiful nymph. The fisherman-turned-sea-god

God

God is a deity in theism and deism religions and other belief systems, representing either the sole deity in monotheism, or a principal deity in polytheism....
Glaucus

Glaucus

In Greek mythology, Glaucus was the name of several different figures, including one god . These figures are sometimes referred to as Glaukos or Glacus....
fell madly in love with her, but she fled from him onto the land where he could not follow. Despair filled his heart. He went to the sorceress Circe to ask for a love potion to melt Scylla's heart. As he told his tale of love about Scylla to Circe, she herself fell in love with him. She wooed him with her sweetest words and looks, but the sea-god would have none of her. Circe was furious, but with Scylla and not with Glaucus. She prepared a vial of very powerful poison and poured it in the pool where Scylla bathed. As soon as the nymph entered the water, she was transformed into a frightful monster with twelve feet and six heads, each with three rows of teeth. Angry, growling wolf heads grew from her waist, and she tried to brush them off. She stood there in utter misery, unable to move, loathing and destroying everything that came into her reach, a peril to all sailors who passed near her. Whenever a ship passed, each of her heads would seize one of the crew.

Other

In a late Greek myth, it was said that Heracles

Heracles

In Greek mythology, Heracles or Herakles meaning "glory of Hera", or "Glorious through Hera" Alcides or Alcaeus " was a hero, the son of Zeus and Alcmene, foster son of Amphitryon and great-grandson of Perseus....
encountered Scylla during a journey to Sicily and slew her. Her father, the sea-god Phorcys, then applied flaming torches to her body and restored her to life.

According to John Tzetzes and Servius' commentary on the Aeneid
Aeneid

The Aeneid is a Latin Epic poetry written by Virgil in the late 1st century BC that tells the legendary story of Aeneas, a Troy who traveled to Italy, where he became the ancestor of the Rome....
Scylla was a beautiful naiad who was claimed by Poseidon, but Amphitrite

Amphitrite

In ancient Greek mythology, Amphitrite was a sea-goddess. Under the influence of the Olympian pantheon, she became merely the consort of Poseidon, and was further diminished by poets to a symbolic representation of the sea....
turned her into a monster.

It is said that by the time Aeneas

Aeneas

This article is about the Roman hero. For other uses, see Aeneas .In Greco-Roman mythology, Aeneas was a Troy hero, the son of prince Anchises and the goddess Venus_....
' fleet came through the strait after the fall of Troy

Troy

Troy is a legendary city and center of the Trojan War, as described in the Epic Cycle, and especially in the Iliad, one of the two epic poems attributed to Homer....
, Scylla had been changed into a dangerous rock outcropping which still stands there to this day.

The character of Sin from John Milton

John Milton

John Milton II was an English poet, author, polemicist and civil servant for the Commonwealth of England. He is best known for his Epic poetry Paradise Lost and for his treatise condemning censorship, Areopagitica....
's Paradise Lost
Paradise Lost

Paradise Lost is an epic poem in blank verse by the 17th-century England poet John Milton. It was originally published in 1667 in ten books....
is similar to Scylla. Scylla and Charybdis are actually mentioned at one point in the poem.

In Popular Culture

The American heavy metal band Trivium
Trivium (band)

Trivium is an American Heavy metal music band formed in 2000 in Orlando, Florida. The band has released Trivium discography, eleven singles, and twelve music videos....
has a song on their album, Shogun
Shogun

is a military rank and historical title for Hereditary Commanders in Chief of the Armed Forces of Japan. The Japanese word for "general", it is made up of two kanji characters: sho, meaning "commander", "general", or "admiral", and gun meaning military troops or warriors....
, called "Torn Between Scylla and Charybdis".
The Prison Break
Prison Break

Prison Break is an American serial drama Television program created by Paul Scheuring, which premiered on the Fox Broadcasting Company on August 29, 2005....
season four premiere is called "Scylla" and the episodes after feature the gang hunting to retrieve the six company data cards of the same name. Scylla is portrayed as a secret government project to control all of the Sun's energy and more.
In Battlestar Galactica (2004 TV series)
Battlestar Galactica (2004 TV series)

Battlestar Galactica is an Emmy Award and Peabody Award-winning Serial television program created by Ronald D. Moore that first aired in a Battlestar Galactica in December 2003, on Sci Fi Channel ....
, the "Scylla" was a civilian transport ship in a small group of vessels picked up by the battlestar Pegasus
Pegasus

In Greek mythology, Pegasus was a winged horse sired by Poseidon, in his role as horse-god, and foaled by the Gorgon Medusa....
a week after the Cylon
Cylon

Cylon may refer to:*Cylon of Athens*Cylon, Wisconsin, a town in St. Croix County, Wisconsin, United States*Cylon , a cybernetic civilization in the Battlestar Galactica universe...
attack on the Colonies. The "Scylla" was left for dead after being abandoned and stripped of parts by the Pegasus
Pegasus

In Greek mythology, Pegasus was a winged horse sired by Poseidon, in his role as horse-god, and foaled by the Gorgon Medusa....
crew. The battlestar Pegasus
Pegasus

In Greek mythology, Pegasus was a winged horse sired by Poseidon, in his role as horse-god, and foaled by the Gorgon Medusa....
serves as the Charybdis
Charybdis

In Greek mythology, Kharybdis or Charybdis was a sea monster, once a beautiful naiad and the daughter of Poseidon and Gaia . She takes form as a huge bladder of a creature whose face was all mouth and whose arms and legs were flippers and swallows huge amounts of water three times a day before belching them back out again, creating whi...
in the story of the Scylla's passengers, who cannot escape from either ship, either being pressed into service on the battlestar or left stranded and lost on the civilian ships.
In the video game Castlevania: Symphony of the Night, Scylla serves as a boss, with serpent-like creatures called Scylla Wyrms attached to her.
In William Goldman
William Goldman

William Goldman is an United Statesn novelist, playwright and two-time Academy Awards-winning screenwriter. He lives in New York City....
's novel Marathon Man
Marathon Man

Marathon Man is a 1974 conspiracy thriller novel by William Goldman. In 1976 in film it was made into a Marathon Man starring Dustin Hoffman, Laurence Olivier, and Roy Scheider and directed by John Schlesinger....
, Scylla is the smooth but ruthless, secret agent brother to the awkward, marathon-running geek. In the movie adaptation, Scylla was played by Roy Scheider
Roy Scheider

Roy Richard Scheider was an American actor. He is best known for his role as police chief Martin Brody in Jaws , his role as Joe Gideon in All That Jazz, and as detective Buddy 'Cloudy' Russo in The French Connection . Scheider's final role comes as Joseph in the 2009 thriller Iron Cross ....
and the younger brother was played by Dustin Hoffman
Dustin Hoffman

Dustin Lee Hoffman is a two-time Academy Award-, six-time Golden Globe-, three-time BAFTA- and Emmy Award-winning United States actor....
.
In the Buffy The Vampire Slayer
Buffy the Vampire Slayer

Buffy the Vampire Slayer is an Emmy-Award Winning Television in the United States cult television series that aired from March 10, 1997 until May 20, 2003....
video game, Scylla appears as one of Buffy's foes.
Scylla
Scylla

Scylla , also known as Scylle , was one of the two monsters in Greek mythology that lived on either side of a narrow channel of water. The two sides of the strait were within an arrow's range of each other?so close that sailors attempting to avoid Charybdis would pass too close to Scylla and vice versa....
and Charybdis
Charybdis

In Greek mythology, Kharybdis or Charybdis was a sea monster, once a beautiful naiad and the daughter of Poseidon and Gaia . She takes form as a huge bladder of a creature whose face was all mouth and whose arms and legs were flippers and swallows huge amounts of water three times a day before belching them back out again, creating whi...
are both mentioned in the popular song by The Police
The Police

The Police were an English Power trio Rock music band consisting of Sting , Andy Summers and Stewart Copeland . The band became globally popular in the late 1970s, playing a style of rock that was influenced by jazz, punk rock and reggae music....
, "Wrapped Around Your Finger".
In the video game Sonic Chronicles: The Dark Brotherhood
Sonic Chronicles: The Dark Brotherhood

Sonic Chronicles: The Dark Brotherhood is a Nintendo DS console role-playing game based on the Sonic the Hedgehog franchise, and developed by Canadian RPG developer BioWare as their first handheld video game project....
, Scylla and Charybdis are the names of two sectors within the alternate dimension known as the Twilight Cage.

External links

references in classical literature and ancient art.

Scylla

In literature

Homer's Odyssey

Ovid

Other

In Popular Culture

See also

External links